baker



(No Model.)

E. G. BAKER. TABLET DISPLAYING DEVICE.

110.476,182. Patented May 31,1892.

Witnesses. I raven/26011 NITED Strlrrnsl PATENT OFFICE.

ERI G. BAKER, OF LONVELL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE BAKER TELEPHONEINDEX AND TABLET COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

TABLET-DISPLAYI Ne Device.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 476,1`2, dated May 31,1892.

Application tiled June 8, 1891,. Serial No. 395,461. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that l, ERI G. BAKER,a citizen of the United States,residing at Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and Commonwealth ofMassachusetts, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inTablet-Displaying Devices, of which the followingis a speciication.

My invention relates to tablet-displaying devices adapted to hold in aconvenient forni a series of tablets or cards on which are written orprinted lists of names, prices, or discounts, or other things, orwritten or printed indexes, and capable of being turned to bring anysuch tablet or 'card in sight of the observer.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a front elevation of thedevice, omitting the tablets or cards, the bearing studs being partly incross-section in the plane of the centers or hubs of the cylinder; Fig.2, a plan of one of the hubs (the top of the lower hub or the bottom ofthe upper l1ub)and adjacent parts of the frame-wires; Fig. 3,a plan ofthe back board, the upper bearing-stud, the upper part of the cylinder,and the tablets or cards in position; Fig. 4, an enlarged horizontalsection of the vertical part of one of the frame-wires, thegroove-plate, and parts of adjacent tablets arranged in the grooves ofsaid plate; Fig. 5, a plan of the bottom of the back board lowerbearing-stud, the lower part of the cylinder, and the tablets or cardsin position; Fig. G, a section on theline 6 6 in Fig.

2, showing a hub and adjacent parts of frame# w1res.

A is a back board, adapted to be secured by screws or nails to the wallof an office or room in which the device is to be used. B B arebearing-studs secured to the back board A and projecting horizontallytherefrom in the same vertical plane with each other. The cylinder C, socalled by analogy and not because it is cylindrical in a strictlygeometrical sense, may be made of any suitable material, but, asrepresented in the drawings, consists principally of a frame-work ofwires c, to which are secured groove-plates C', adapt ed to receive theedges of tablets o1' cards D. Said frame-wires chave vertical parallelparts c', arranged at equal angular intervals from each other and atequal distances from the axis of the cylinder C, said frame-wires cabove and below `the vertical part c' being bent inwardly at Ac2111radial planes nearly to the center of saidcylinder, and then at c3 bentaway from the ends of the body of said cylinder parallel with each otherand with the axis of said cylinder, the parts c3 entering ferrules c4c5, to which said parts cS are soldered or secured bylfilling saidferrules with melted solder or other easily-fusible: and quickly-coolingmetal or material. The ferrules c4 c5 serve asrhubs or journals whichenter and turn freely in holes ZJ b inthe bearing-studs B B. v Theintervals between the frame-wires c are maintained by brace wires orhoops c6 c7, soldered to the radial or nearly-radial parts or spokes c2of said wires c, the upper one c6 of said hoops being somewhatsmaller'than the circumference of the cylinder C in order not tointerfere witl1\`V the placing of the tablets or cards D in thegroove-plates C', and the lower one c7 of said hoops being arrangedbelow the lower ends of said groove-plates `to serve as a support forsaid tablets or cards, and being preferably corrugated, as shown at o8in Fig. 5, partly to improve the appearance thereof and partly to enablethe cylinder C to be turned readily by placing the fin gers on saidcorrugationsm'hich extend outside of the tablets or cards, except at thegroove-plates, to prevent soiling said tablets or cards by the fingersin turning the cylinder. The groove-plates C are strips of sheet metal,as tin-plate or sheet-brasa (best shown in Fig. 4,) each plate C' beingattached at the middle by solder to the outside of a vertical part c ofa frame-wire c, and on each side of said part c bent outward at c, andthen inward at 010 between the bend o9 and the side edge of said plate Cto form a groove ou, to receive one of the side edges of a tablet orcard D. Each tablet or card is inserted in the top ends of a groove c11of one groove- 95 IOO The tablets or cards are of any suitable sheetmaterial, as paper or card-board, adapted to be painted or to be writtenor printed upon. The cylinder may be turned easily and quickly to exposeeach tablet to the same light or to show the tablets successively tothev observer without the latter changing his position. Upon the tabletsor cards maybe written, printed, or painted ledger-page indexes,shipping-lists, address-lists, price-lists, discount-lists, or othertabulated or alphabetically-arranged information to which frequentreference needs to be made and which is usually arranged in book form.

The device is particularly useful as a directory ofalphabetically-amanged names of telephone subscribers, and in any of thecases above referred to may be consulted in a small fraction of the timerequired in turn-` ing the leaves of a book and will always be found inthe same place, while a book is frequently misplaced.

I claim as my invention- 1. The cylinder comprising hubs or journals,frame-wires secured to said hubs and having parts parallel with eachother and with the axis of said cylinder, plates secured to saidparallel parts of said frame-wires and having grooves adapted to receivetablets or cards, and brace-wires secured to said framewires to holdsaid frame-wires in their proper positions relatively to each other, oneof said brace-wires being arranged nearer to the center of said cylinderthan said plates at the top of said cylinder and the other of saidbrace-wires being secured to said frame-wires below the grooves of saidplates to support such tablets or cards, as and for the purposespecified.

2. The cylinder comprising hubs or journals, frame-wires secured to saidhubs and having parts parallel with each other and with the axis of saidcylinder, plates secured to said parallel parts of said frame-Wires andhaving grooves adapted to receive tablets or cards, and brace-Wiressecured to said framewires to hold said frame-wires in their properpositions relatively to each other, one of said brace-wires beingarranged nearer to the center of said cylinder than said plates at thetop of said cylinder and the other of said brace-wires being secured tosaid frame-wires below the grooves of said plates to support suchtablets or cards, and between said plates adapted to extend beyond suchcards to enable said cylinder to be turned by applying the lingers tosaid last-named brace-wire, as and for the purpose specified.

3. The cylinder comprising hubs or journais, frame-wires secured to saidhubs and having parts parallel with each other and with the axis of saidcylinder, plates secured t to said parallel parts of said frame-wiresand having grooves adapted to receive tablets or cards, and brace-wiressecured to said frame- Wires to hold said frame-wires in their properpositions relatively to each other, one of said brace-wires beingarranged nearer to the center of said cylinder than said plates at thetop of said cylinder and the other of said brace-wires being secured tosaid frame-wires below the grooves of said plates to support suchtablets or cards and between said plates adapted to extend beyond suchcards to enable said cylinder to be turned by applying the lingers tosaid last-named brace-wire, said last-named brace-wire being corrugatedin order to be more readily engaged by the fingers, as and for thepurpose speciiied.

In witness whereof I have signed this specitication, in the presence ot'two attesting witnesses, this 3d day of June, A. D. 1891.

, ERI G. BAKER.

Witnesses:

ALBERT M. MOORE, MYRTIE C. BEALs.

